Large, remote concentrating solar power systems are the new darlings
of the solar industry. Some observers now see centralized, not
decentralized solar as the future. But a new report by the Institute
for Local Self-Reliance reveals that the economic advantage of
centralized solar and absentee owned solar arrays rests on federal tax
incentives that discriminate against locally owned, decentralized solar
arrays.

John Farrell, the report's author and a strong voice in the energy
community, calls for Congress to change federal tax incentives to give
equal benefits to residential solar arrays, instead of favoring
commercial and centralized projects.

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"Decentralized solar arrays avoid the cost and hassle of building
new high voltage transmission lines", says Farrell. "They also enable
local ownership, which should be a goal of public policy."

Concentrating solar power plants work more like conventional power
plants than solar photovoltaic panels. They use large arrays of mirrors
to focus sunlight for heat, using the heat to create steam and generate
electricity. These plants, mostly built in the deserts of the American
Southwest, must send their power over long-distance transmission lines
and are much larger than the rooftop solar panels that were previously
the dominant form of solar power production.

The size of concentrating solar plants precludes local ownership, a
benefit that renewable energy policy must factor in. "Ownership
converts citizens into energy producers, which in turn gives them a
personal stake in expanding the use of renewable energy," notes
Farrell. "It also encourages them to maximize energy efficiency,
because the greater the efficiency the more independent they become,
perhaps even becoming a net exporter of electricity."

The full report, Concentrating Solar and Decentralized Power:
Government Incentives Hinder Local Ownership, is available online at http://www.newrules.org/. For more information, or to arrange an interview with John Farrell, please contact Brooke Gullikson.

Since 1974, ILSR has worked with citizen groups, governments and
private businesses in developing practices that extract the maximum
value from local resources. A program of ILSR, the New Rules Project was designed to build community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics.